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Sensing growing dissent among plenty of frustrated developers at every turn, Apple is continuing to put forward efforts in good faith to make the app approval process as transparent and "open" as possible - at least for a fiercely private company like Apple.

This week Apple is busy notifying developers that there is a new tool available to help achieve that stated goal. Thanks to a new iPhone developer RSS feed on Apple's site, developers can stay on top of news and announcements pertinent to their work and the at large iphone developer community.

We all know the App Store is broken. But we also all know that Apple is trying to fix it. Last night, Apple sent out notifications to iPhone developers letting them know that they had a new tool to share that will hopefully further open communications with developers.

Although news of Apple starting an RSS isn't overtly exciting and largely went unnoticed across the newswire when word of its existence was unveiled, Apple is trying to convince developers that an RSS feed will prove enormously helpful in maintaining a flow of communication.

Perhaps the biggest beef developers have with Apple today is the often-lengthy approval time involved in the application approval process. When the "accepted timeframe" of two weeks passes and there's still no word on the approval or rejection of an application, developers get irritated. If anything, Apple's RSS feed can help pacify developers with regular updates and information about any and all delays, glitches, or other concerns that could be slowing the approval process for every developer patiently awaiting their turn from Apple.

In terms of the App Store overall, we remain of the mindset that it's ultimately an untenable model. Eventually, as the App Store keeps growing, Apple is going to have to open it up more (maybe with "trusted" developers) or it will have to hire an absurd number of people just to check applications. Yes, Apple's trusted ecosystem is important, but it's not like they check every website in the world, which the iPhone can access.